Pastor Stef's Prayer based on Psalm 14

You’d have to be pretty stupid to say that God doesn’t exist.
Most arguments against the existence of God may appear intellectual, but are often just excuses to live without God interfering.
We are continually trying to convince ourselves that a good life comes by indulging in self-gratification.
How stupid can we be?
 
Lord, how often have you “repented” of having made us?
None of us understand.
No one is looking for you.
We all run down the wrong path.
We have all gotten ourselves dirty.
No one chooses the good.
 
How long will we continue in our stupidity?
We kill each other by the words we use, as if people are of no more value than pulling weeds, and we don’t realise that you overhear every syllable. 
The few people who do try to follow you are persecuted and feel overwhelmed by a world that is against them and seems to be winning.
 
But you are with your children.
We live and hide in you.
Send us a saviour.
Send us a deliverer
Restore your children.
Take the poverty that has been inflicted upon us and turn it into riches.
Allow us to be a people who can celebrate because we have been rescued by your saviour. 

Devotion by Cora Goodyear
Psalm 14
Of David
David begins this psalm with a potent description of those who do not believe in God. He says there is an overwhelming feeling of dread within these people perhaps because they see God in the company of the righteous (v5). In comparison, David says God is present in the company of the righteous and the Lord is their refuge. David ends the psalm looking forward to when salvation for Israel will come out of Zion.
 
Psalm 14:6 “You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.”
 
In this psalm, David is trying to comfort God’s people by telling them the Lord is their refuge.
 
People can persecute Christians and disapprove of their faith. Which should never weaken us but instead have the opposite effect. It should make us stronger in our faith rather than do as those people may hope and turn us away from God. After all, we have proof of God’s presence in the past and know we would rather have that, than anything unbelievers profess to. It is also comforting to know we have God as our refuge. We sometimes take our problems to good friends and they may have good advice to give us. But God is the one we can always trust with our problems. He will listen and we can leave our burdens with him. He is our shield and our protector in the world.
 
Point: To remember God is our refuge.